Conservative blogger Paul Mirengoff and liberal law professor Paul Campos argue that Elena Kagan is poorly qualified for the Supreme Court because of what they argue is a weak record of scholarship. Mirengoff expresses incredulity that “you could publish so little and still become the dean of a major law school.” I have a much […]
Archive | Academia
I Shouldn’t Take Brian Leiter’s Bait, So
I won’t. I could prepare a lengthy post on how he intentionally distorted what I wrote about taboos in elite universities like Harvard, or take him to task for a cheap insult, and so forth, but I’ll instead quote what Leiter himself has written to show why it’s not worth responding to him, and why […]
Taboo and Not Taboo at Elite Universities
Anthropologists tell us that one window into a society is what is and is not taboo in that society. It’s interesting to look at America’s elite universities in this context. Let’s take examples of people and ideas that are not taboo, just from things that I’ve blogged about: Being the head of an enemy, terrorist […]
Annual “Jumps” and “Slips” in the U.S. News Ranking
I recently received this e-mail from a student deciding among various law schools (with actualy school names replaced with numbers by me): I read your blog all the time and I’m very impressed with your knowledge and intuition. I’m currently deciding between School 1, School 2, and School 3. School 1 just jumped in the […]
Anti-Mankiw!
When I saw this item on Professor Greg Mankiw’s blog, I admit that my first thought was … someone has written Anti-Mankiw, Vols 1 and 2. Can I channel a (dead) zeitgeist or what? And, indeed, it turns out that someone is apparently trying to organize a collective to do something like that, if I […]
Jotwell
I wanted to remind readers about Jotwell — the Journal of Things We Like Lots — a website that has been up for a few months in which law professors blog about their favorite recent articles. Somewhat to my surprise, I find Jotwell interesting more for what it says about the bloggers who are making […]
Major legal win for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus
Students for Concealed Carry on Campus v. Regents of the University of Colorado. Decided this morning by the Colorado Court of Appeals (a three-judge panel of Colorado’s intermediate appellate court). In brief: Colorado’s licensing statute for carrying a concealed handgun for lawful protection is explicitly preemptive. The University of Colorado bans concealed carry anyway, arguing […]
Preliminary List of Entry-Level Law Prof Hires
Larry Solum has the initial list of newly-hired law professors here. Congrats on the folks who landed a position, especially in this very tough market. (And if you’ll pardon a little special cheering for the home team, special congrats to 2007 GW Law grad Josh Douglas for obtaining a faculty position at the University of […]
Legal Clinics Under Siege
The New York Times reports that law school legal clinics continue to spark controversy and political backlash, particularly (though not exclusively) at state-supported schools. The story keys on efforts by some Maryland legislators to defund the clinic at the University of Maryland law school unless the clinic turns over information about its clients and its […]
New Leiter Rankings on Scholarly Impact, By School and By Professor
Brian Leiter’s new “scholarly impact” rankings, measuring impact from 2005-2009, are here. Update (from TZ): Professor Leiter tells me via email that his report actually wasn’t intended to go live quite yet and that he is still editing it, so that there are expected revisions to come.
Larry Tribe to DOJ
This is from late February, but I don’t think I have seen it reported elsewhere (although I may have just missed it): Laurence Tribe ’66, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard, has been named Senior Counselor for Access to Justice in the Department of Justice, and he will lead a newly launched initiative […]
How Many Rounds of Edits Are Best, and What Kinds, for Law Review Publications?
The process of publishing a law review article usually involves rounds of edits. After the article is accepted, the author will submit the article to begin the editing process. The journal will suggest changes; the author will respond; the journal will suggest more changes; the author will respond, etc. Journal editors and authors […]
A Celebration of Bill Stuntz, March 26-27
On the afternoon of Friday, March 26, and the morning of March 27, Harvard Law School will be celebrating the work of Bill Stuntz, the Henry J. Friendly Professor of Law. The conference will be a bittersweet event. It will be sweet in that many outstanding criminal procedure scholars, together with many other academic luminaries, […]
Laptops in Class Redux
The Washington Post revisits the question of laptop use in the classroom. A generation ago, academia embraced the laptop as the most welcome classroom innovation since the ballpoint pen. But during the past decade, it has evolved into a powerful distraction. Wireless Internet connections tempt students away from note-typing to e-mail, blogs, YouTube videos, sports […]
Roscoe Pound, Enemy of American Constitutionalism
Below, Orin expresses amazement/bewilderment that Glenn Beck deems Roscoe Pound an important enemy of American constitutionalism, by which I assume Orin means a proper understanding of the U.S. Constitution. I watched the clip, and I’m not going to vouch for Beck’s bizarre claim that Pound was somehow responsible for American lawyers interpreting the Constitution via […]